Directed and written by Brian De Palma, this stars Willian Finley as Woton Wretchichevsky, a disfigured man who hides under a cloak and mask. He spends most of his time either sculpting steel and garbage works of art or hunting down young lovers and murdering them with the same blowtorch that he uses to create. Like the young woman who emerges from his artwork and runs away as he tries to show his love by pointing the flames her way.
This feels like German Expressionist by way of Lynch by way of Japanese wildness by way of a student film that was probably not meant for us to study sixty years later. Regardless, it’s fascinating. Finley was already a force of nature even here in his first movie and the wild soundtrack is near perfect.
You can watch this on YouTube.
